New Diablo 3 Character Movies

Today five new movies, one for each of Diablo III’s classes, mysteriously appeared on YouTube. Our best guess is they’re content for the new D3 community site that someone snooped around and found before it was officially linked and public. Naturally, we grabbed them at once and posted them to our YouTube channel, in case the original versions went away.

Each movie is around one minute in length, and each shows about 30 seconds of one gender, then the other, casting various spells. These are reminiscent of the previous Runestone movies, in that the action is just a character on a black, matrix-like background, but the viewpoint is much lower, and everything looks far more 3D. In some portions spells are actually flying up and past and through the “camera.”

Better yet, each one shows off a LOT of new stuff. New skills, new runestone effects, or both. The Witch Doctor is below, since he doesn’t get very much love, and since his movie shows the most new/weird/cool stuff.

Witch Doctor skills and runestone effects demonstrated in this video:

• 0:03 – 0:09 — Grasp of the Dead runestone effect creates a cemetery of grasping zombie hands. AoE damage on any enemies in the vicinity. Maybe slowing also?
• 0:05 – 0:10 — Locust Swarm with individual flight patterns visible.
• 0:11 – 0:20 — Zombie Bears; a famous runestone effect in Zombie Charger. The bears function as spectral objects, as they run through enemies and deal damage like a poison spray; they don’t actually grizzly maul. (Unfortunately.)
• 0:21 – 0:25 — Plague of Toads.
• 0:26 – 0:32 — Zombie Nova, most likely a runestone effect of Wall of Zombies. I like how they rot to skeletons as they move outwards. See also Zombie Tower.
• 0:36 – 0:40 — Mongrels, which then get Sacrificed. (Mongrels now appear to cast all 3 at once, rather than one at a time with more allowed by more points in the skill. Sacrifice might also now blow up all 3 at once? Or perhaps that’s granted by a skill rune?)
• 0:41 – 0:48 — Firebats
• 0:43 – 0:50 — Haunt, new and improved graphics. Might be a runestone effect that turns them into hovering helpers, ready to attack enemies if any are sighted? Also, what are they… like skeletal fetal porpoises?
• 0:55 – 0:59 — Firebomb, with a runestone effect to make it bounce and deal multiple hits.
• 1:01 — Mass Confusion for the big finish.

Click through for the other four movies, plus notes on every skill/effect seen in them.

The Barbarian.

Barbarian skills and runestone effects shown in this movie:

• 0:01 – 0:05 — Hammer of the Ancients. Might be a runestone, or maybe just a redesigned graphic for the skill.
• 0:06 – 0:10 — Ancient Harpoon, with a skill rune granting double shot to it.
• 0:12 – 0:24 — Massively powerful ground stomp creates a large round field of flames, as well as granting some sort of fire demon appearance to the Barbarian (Likely this is Wrath of the Berserker, and it’ll be interesting to see how it makes the female Barb look.) The fire field may come from another skill, such as a runestone effect in Earthquake?
• 0:18 – 0:20 — Some Cleaves used while the flames continue to burn.
• 0:33 — Unknown aqua-colored nova effect. Likely one of the Shouts with a runestone effect.
• 0:34 – 0:37 — Weapon Throw.
• 0:38 – 0:43 — Seismic Slam.
• 0:44 — Unknown purple dual wield knee slash. Perhaps a runestone effect in Bash or Cleave?
• 0:47 – 0:50 — Whirlwind with the mini-twister Indigo runestone effect.

The Demon Hunter.

Demon Hunter skills and runestone effects shown in this movie. This list is tentative since so many of the DH skills have never been seen. If you’ve got better guesses fire them in the comments.

• 0:02 — Fan of Knives. The ground effect appears to now be part of the base skill graphics, as it’s been in numerous screenshots.
• 0:03-0:08 — Multishot with an unknown rune effect giving the arrows a purple gleam.
• 0:08 0:11 – Unknown skill fires electro-arrow orbs? Probably a runestone version of Elemental Arrow.
• 0:12 – 0:16 — This is Strafe, much changed from its Diablo II Amazon form. It gives the Demon Hunter into a sort of “Death Blossom” effect, causing the DH to turn black and spin around, emitting much ordinance.
• 0:17 – 0:27 — The Demon Hunter shows a never-before seen effect, growing glowing purple emo-angel wings. This is probably Shadow Power (or Preparation), and the effect seems to super-charge his other skills much as the Wizard‘s Archon does, since the DH then shows some amazing machine gun speed with the Rapid Fire skill.
• 0:33 – 0:38 — The DH fires a triple shot with green arrows. From the spinning circular projectiles this seems to be a runestone effect of Bolo Shot
• 0:39 – 0:43 — A powerful single-shot attack with no visible projectile and not much of a graphic. Unknown skill.
• 0:45 – 0:49 — Chakram is the name of this glowing, spinning, giant boomerang ninja star ability. This skill has never been player testable, so there’s no telling if it’s runestone’d or if this is the default.
• 0:50 – 0:58 — The DH fires shots straight up into the air and a second later numerous black/invisible meteor type projectiles come smashing down. This appears to be a runestone effect in the never-seen Rain of Arrows.
• 0:57 – 1:01 — Vault with a runestone adding a sort of Blaze effect that leaves flaming ground behind the Demon Hunter.

The Monk.

The Monk skills and runestone effects seen in this video. This list is tentative since so many of the Monk skills have never been seen. The post will be updated if better suggestions appear in the comments.

• 0:02-0:05 — A combo skill right at the start. Probably this is a runestone’d version of Fists of Thunder..
• 0:06-0:08 — Another combo with two claw swipes before an engulfing swirling rune effect surrounds the Monk on the third hit. Never before seen; possibly a rune effect in Crippling Wave.
• 0:10 – 0:12 — Dashing movement skill. Could be the basic Tempest Rush.
• 0:14 – 0:18 — Seven Sided Strike. Probably this is the default, but the skill hasn’t been seen since 2009 so it might be a runestone effect.
• 0:19 — A green nova-type blast of light. Perhaps a runestoned version of Blinding Flash.
• 0:24 – 0:28 — A combo skill that deals three green spell effects that reach much more than melee range. Probably a runestone in Deadly Reach.
• 0:29 – 0:33 — Way of the Hundred Fists has new graphics. Note the punch delivered while holding a staff.
• 0:34 – 0:37 — The “create a huge temple bell, then punch it into a projectile” was initially said to be a runestone effect in Wave of Light. In this version the bell is dropped, then rung, knocking back nearby enemies. It’s seen in use against some Goatmen in the recent b-roll movie.
• 0:38 — Another combo skill; commenters plausibly (since it’s the least visually-impressive combo) suggest Exploding Palm.
• 0:39 – 0:50 — Never before seen skill. This is probably Tempest Rush (though possibly a rune effect of Wave of Light), as the Monk runs along, spinning a spectral staff before her. It looks kind of like Whirlwind in its likely function.

The Wizard

Wizard skills and runestone effects shown in this movie.

• 0:01 – 0:10 — Several Hydras are cast, and fire for a bit.
• 0:08 – 0:11 — Electric projectile attack. This is most likely a Runestone effect in Electrocute.
• 12 – 0:18 — Arcane Orbs.
• 0:19 – 0:31 — Archon, a new Wizard skill. It turns the wizard into an elemental looking being for a short duration, and greatly increases skill damage. The Wizard shows off his massive Disintegrate beam with it in effect.
• 0:35 – 0:39 — Magic Missile.
• 0:41 – 0:43 — Floating electric orbs? Never before seen; they’re probably a runestone effect in Electrocute. I wonder if they home in on enemies?
• 0:44 – 0:49 — Energy Twisters with some kind of sparkly purple runestone effect.
• 0:50 – 1:02 — Arcane Torrent, fires a series of purple spearhead-like projectiles at the targeted spot. As this skill hasn’t been playable at any point, it’s not known if this is the default version or a runestone effect.